Academy Fellow

I am a developmental psychologist by training who completed my PhD in 1997. My lived experience as a child of migrant parents who did not complete primary school, my experience and passion as a researcher over the years, and my hosting of a visit in 2022 to Australia by Sir Michael Marmot to work and publish with him, has galvanised a deep personal and professional awareness of injustice and inequity, and an aspiration to ‘even the playing field’. In November 2017 I was appointed as the foundation Monash Warwick Alliance Chair in Health and Social Care Improvement and Implementation Science, with a team of 8. I have established Australia’s first Health and Social Care Unit (HSCU) with now a team of 62 personnel, including two consumer advocates. Under my leadership, HSCU has driven the boundaries of health and social care, drawing on theories, extensive evidence synthesis, randomised controlled trials and practice-based knowledge from real world pragmatic implementation research. As a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in developmental psychology, medicine, allied health, social work, sociology, education, equity and cultural diversity, multicultural health and wellbeing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, biostatistics, consumer and community involvement, co-design, evidence synthesis, RCTs, intervention mapping, implementation science, health and social care improvement, health promotion, policy, media, journalism, organisational culture and leadership, HSCU is advancing approaches to the complex and multifactorial challenges addressing inequity in health, social care and education practice. 

Examples of research that involve implementation at scale and evaluation include:

My mentee Dr Claire Blewitt and I have pioneered the development of the Social-Emotional Engagement and Development SEED) Program, in partnership with bestchance Child Family Care to support educators to foster social-emotional learning in pre-schoolers. In 2019, the Victorian Department of Education (DE) included SEED as one of the evidence-based offerings to kindergartens through the School Readiness Funding Initiative, after having received one of the highest DET ‘strength of evidence’ rankings. SEED is now licenced to bestchance, is being implemented and scaled across Victorian kindergartens and is promoted as best practice by DE. 

HEALing Matters (HM) is a Victorian Government funded online training package and knowledge exchange platform for out-of-home care (OOHC) carers that my team and I co-developed with young people with lived experience and other key stakeholders. HM has been informed by trauma, resilience, and attachment theories and moves away from a sole focus on behavioural changes, to recognising that food and physical activity are powerful ways of demonstrating a sense of belonging, value, trust, safety, security, and predictability. It is underpinned by the ethos that the home environment and the interpersonal relationships that exist between young people living in OOHC and their carers are crucial in initiating and maintaining healthy lifestyle. HM is included in Victoria’s most recent Healthy Kids, Health Futures 5-year action plan and is being scaled up across Victoria, South Australia, and parts of NSW as best practice in OOHC.

Monash University (School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine):

Monash Warwick Professor in Health and Social Care Improvement and Implementation Science

Director, Health and Social Care Unit, HSCU

Co-Lead, Evidence Synthesis, Qualitative and Implementation Medicine

Director, NHMRC CRE in Health in Preconception and Pregnancy (CRE HiPP)

Graduate Research (HDR) Coordinator

Professional & Honorary Appointments:

2023-* University Associate, Curtin School of Nursing, Curtin University (Western Australia)

2022-* Editor-in-Chief (Journal), Health and Social Care in the Community (UK)

2022-* Board Secretary, Global Implementation Society (GIS)

2022-* Member, Research Committee, Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)

2021-* Member, Multicultural Health Collaborative Coordination Group, Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA)

2021-* Member of the ARC College of Experts 

2021-* MonReN/Monash Partners Practice Based Research Network Stakeholder Advisory Group

2021-* Member, Power to Kids: Respecting Sexual Safety National Advisory Group (MacKillop)

2021-* Board Director Elect, Global Implementation Society (GIS)

2019-* Advisory Board member, Midlands Mental Health and Productivity Pilot, UK

2019-* Foundation member, National Obesity Collective 

2019-* Board Chair, Parent-Infant Research Institute (PIRI)

2019-* Fellow, Salzburg Global Alliance

2019-* Honorary Visiting Professor, University of Patras (Greece), Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education

2017-* Member, Victorian Health Eating Enterprise Implementation working party

Professional Memberships:

Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS)

Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)

Australasian Society of Behavioural Health and Medicine (ASBHM)

Global Implementation Society (GIS)

Awards:

2022 - Monash University

Dean’s Awards 2022 - Excellence in Research - Engagement and Impact (Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences): Establishing HSCU (Health & Social Care Unit) that now drives the evidence needed through multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral expertise and methodologies that are contributing to better health and social outcomes)

2021 - Monash University

Public Health Research & Practice 2021 Excellence Award - ‘Best In Practice Paper’, senior author paper: ‘Communicating COVID-19 health information to culturally and linguistically diverse communities: insights from a participatory research collaboration’

2021 - Vic Health

2021 Victorian Health Promotion Awards - “Future Healthy Award” for HEALing Matters

2021 - Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (Vic Gov’t)

Victorian Protecting Children’s Awards 2021 - “Robin Clark Making a Difference Award” - Highly Commended award (runner up) - HEALing Matters

2020 – Monash University

Dean’s Award for Research Excellence in Social and Economic Impact - HEALing Matters

2014 - Deakin University

Excellence in Mentoring (Faculty of Health)

2013 - Deakin University

Research Excellence (Faculty of Health)

1. Skouteris, H., Green, R., Chung, A., Bergmeier, H., Amir, L. H., Baidwan, S. K., Chater, A., Chamberlain, C., Emond, R., Gibbons, K., Gooey, M., Hatzikiriakidis, K., Haycraft, E., Hills, A., Higgins, D., Hooper, O., Hunter, S., Kappelides, P., Kleve, S., Krakouer, J., Lumeng, J., Manios, Y., Mansoor, A., Marmot, M., Masse, L., Matvienko- Sikar, K., Mchiza, Z. J., Meyer, C., Moschonis, G., Munro, E., O'Connor, T. M., O'Neil, A., Quarmby, T., Sandford, R., Schneiderman, J., Sherriff, S., Simkiss, D., Spence, A., Sturgiss, E., Vicary, D., Wickes, R., Wolfenden, L., Story, M., & Black, M. (2023). Nurturing children’s development through healthy eating and active living: Time for policies to support effective interventions in the context of responsive emotional support and early learning. Health and Social Care in the Community, 30(6), e6719-e6729. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14106
2. O'Donnell, R., Savaglio, M., Halfpenny, N., Morris, H., Dunbar, A., Sharman, C., Williams, R., Miller, R., & Skouteris, H. (2022). Evaluating the implementation of Cradle to Kinder: An intensive home-visitation support program for families experiencing disadvantage. Child Abuse & Neglect, 133, 105855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105855 
3. Hine, R., Krakouer, J., Elston, J., Fredericks, B., Hunter, S. A., Taylor, K., Stephens, T., Couzens, V., Manahan, E., DeSouza, R., Boyle, J., Callander, E., Cunningham, H., Miller, R., Willey, S., Wilton, K., & Skouteris, H. (2022). Identifying and dismantling racism in Australian perinatal settings: Reframing the narrative from a risk lens to intentionally prioritise connectedness and strengths in providing care to First Nations families. Women and Birth: Journal of the Australian College of Midwives, 36(1), 136-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2022.04.007 
4. Green, R., Hatzikiriakidis, K., Tate, R., Bruce, L., Smales, M., Crawford-Parker, A., Carmody, S. & Skouteris, H. (2022). Implementing a healthy lifestyle program in residential out-of-home care: What matters, what works, and what translates? Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(6), 2392-2403. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13773 
5. Morris, H., Blewitt, C., O'Connor, A., & Skouteris, H. (2021). Theorising in the social care sector: conceptualising theory development by frontline workers as they mobilise knowledge to improve outcomes. Journal of Children's Services, 16(3), 184-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-12-2020-0077